I admit it. Maybe it was all the subscriptions to Wired and Business 2.0 and other things that shocked my parents in a long-overdue rebellion. But this year, I considered something I’d never considered before. But I spent so much time in consideration of this prospect that I lost my chance and missed the deadline.
But for those of you who ARE attending The New York Comic Con this weekend in New York City, I wanted to make you aware of the following session, and invite any of you who are going to report back to us on how things went.
“The Jewish Side of Comics” is scheduled to take place on 2/25/2007 at 4:00 PM in Room 1E04, and features Danny Fingeroth, Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, Stan Mack, Josef (Yosef) Rubinstein and Neil Kleid, and will be moderated by Steven Bergson.
Rabbi Weinstein will be talking about Biblical archetypes of superheroes. Danny will be talking about the Jewish writers of superhero stories. Josef Rubinstein will talk about 2 books he’s working on for Mahrwood Press: Balm in Gilead and Journeys : The Collected Edition. Stan Mack will talk about a series of Jewish historical fiction graphic novels he’s working on. Neil Kleid will tale about the cartoon memoir of his Orthodox developmentally disabled younger brother, titled “Migdal David”, to be published by Seraphic Press.
I can’t make it; will be working and Israel Nonstopping…but if anyone goes, please report back to the Jewlicious home office in New York.
Shabbat shalom and may the Force be with you.
Hey,
Anyone know of connections in LA?I want to lecture about the history of Jews and comic books.
Joe
jjr6658 [@] aol.com
Rabbi Weinstein was terrible, honestly. I loved the fact that the one person who told any L’shon harah was a Rabbi.
Sheesh.
TRhe best thing, for me, was meeting neil and the fact we had Mincha after.
[I would rather focus on what Jews today can get out of the medium as opposed to what Jews yesterday put into it. Not that the two are mutually exclusive in any way, I just think that we can do better with this.]
Hear, hear. Like I said on my journal, if only some of my fellow panelists spent more time writing original (fictional/nonfictional) stories with Jewish characters and situations instead of wasting time patting Judaism on the back for helping start the industry, or worse, trying to figure out if Thor was Jewish and what that means to the Torah…
Ok, I apologize, my words were rude and not remotely constructive. I’ll clear myself up.
I found Neil Kleid to be fantastic, in discussing the potential of the comics medium as an expressive Jewish art form. I was disconcerted by the fact that audience members seemed to have a problem with the fact that his upcoming work is critical of the Jewish community, and rightfully so, as it is his first-hand experience of his brother’s struggles at feeling welcomed into the Orthodox community in Michigan because of his developmental disabilities. As a Jewish educator with some background in special education, I’m truly excited by the work.
Arie Kaplan’s perspective seemed to have a fair amount of substance, and despite this, he was very humble and self-effacing about his credentials. While his book on the subject has yet to be published, I am excited to read his work, as his meanstream writing is quite enjoyable.
Rabbi Weinstein barely spoke about comics. He told a bunch of dumb jokes that had nothing to do with comics, because, in his own words “that’s what rabbis are supposed to do”. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a pretty lame image of the rabbi to present. His more fundamentalist readings of Judaism limit his ability to explore the true origins of hero literature and how it influences superheroes of today, which does link to the Bible, but predates it as well. In addition, his book is really lacking in substance, on a variety of different levels, and is really poor scholarship, to say the least. In all honesty, I have been equally disappointed by his book, his articles and the one time I have seen him speak, and this is as somebody who was initially excited about all three.
Stan Mack was pretty decent, and Danny Fingeroth not bad as well, but the content of the program itself really implied that there wasn’t a huge amount of knowledge about Judaism sitting up there, and much of the conversation in this case (and in general, as well) on the subject focused in the whole “wow! there sure are a lot of Jews in the comic book industry!” thing. Despite my interest in the subject, that subject is a horse on its last legs and waiting to be beaten until we find something else cool that Jews did for us to be excited about, like inventing Ritalin or something.
This is a subject with significant depth to be explored, I’m just disappointed that many of the self-appointed experts on on the subject seem to be unable to reach that point.
Steven Bergson has done a wonderful job of gathering and disseminating information, and for that, he should totally be saluted. But at this point, I would rather focus on what Jews today can get out of the medium as opposed to what Jews yesterday put into it. Not that the two are mutually exclusive in any way, I just think that we can do better with this.
I agree, Richard.
However, just to be clear to others, there was no extra charge for the “Jewish Side of Comics” session.
I should also point out that there were plenty of artists who did not charge for their work, including Jewish artists Terry Laban and Neil Kleid. I even got a free autograph from Neal Adams.
When I was in “Artists’ Alley”, there was no lineup for Gary Coleman … which is kinda sad.
The event would have been much better for everyone if they
didn’t charge fans for autographs.
Most of the people I spoke with wasted most of the day waiting on long lines.
http://www.tcf.net/comiccon.html
1.Line to get in
2.line to purchase a ticket for an autograph
3.Line to get autograph signed.
Attn : “Balaam’s Donkey”
I’m sorry to read that you found the panel to be “just dumb crap”. It wasn’t the most common response I have received ; if it were, I’d stop participating (I get zero money for the all of the work involved).
If there’s any way I might be able to help you with your thesis, please e-mail me at [email protected].
I went to the panel. And out of some kind of misguided “concern for the well-being of my fellow jew”, i wont get into the details of how bad most of the panelists were.
just dumb crap. and im writing my thesis on this. totally disappointing .
oic, thanks for the update mike, sorry bout that, too busy w/ my web sites now.
Speaking of Comic Con Jews. A good friend of mine who’s a fantastic comic artist, (check here out at http://www.charipere.com/), Cheri Pere was there before shabbos and will be there all of tomorrow. Oh, and Chutzpa, she’s certainly a Hot Jewish Geek, or as she has called herself, a Dork.
Anyway, if your there you should certainly check out her work. She’ll be manning the SVA table on and off, which is 100A, right near the DDR and Marvel booths.
In her words: “It’s going to be amazing, funtastic, incredible, and above all – GEEKY!!! Get your nerd on and come on down! “
Comics. The kind with panels and artists and inkers. Not the kind who have microphones and make us realize the absurdity of living in this wacky modern world. Jesus.
I don’t think Jewish Humor is that complex. Once you go past clean points, then it just becomes a vulgar trash talk like anything else, they might throw in a word here or there. Usually the secular Jewish comics are about their childhood, their parents materialism, bits come out of that, then there single years, dating, etc. They might bring up a topic but just for effect.
Traditional Jewish humor is more of the immigrant experience variety, as a kind of nostalgic, look back at the old neighborhoods.
We blew it Esther! We coulda so scoped out that convention for hot Jewish geeks. As proven by Beauty and the Geek, geekiness can be cured by a new haircut and a good um, session of reproductive activity.
there’s a new anti-zionist encyclopedia (oxymoron?)
[Ed. by TM: they don’t need a direct link and this is irrelevant to the topic. Spam elsewhere.]